Befriend A Book Blogger – Lorraine From Book Review Cafe

Today I’m really pleased to welcome Lorraine from the Book Review Cafe to the blog to talk about her blog and book blogging. I hope you enjoy this and find yourself another great blogger to follow today.

Lorraine is born and bred in a small village on the outskirts of Bristol and married to her childhood sweetheart Andy. They have one son, who’s married. She says she’s on the wrong side of 50, but you know what they say? 50 + is the new 40, right! Family are a very important part of her life, followed by books. She has always been an avid reader and especially loves crime and psychological thrillers. She thinks she’s always had a “love affair” with books from the moment she could read and her love for reading has stayed with her

Welcome to the blog, thanks for stepping away from yours for a few minutes to answer some questions about book blogging.

We’ll start with the easy questions and then see where we go from there!

How long have you been book blogging and what prompted you to start?

I started my blog in late August 2015 when I was off work after suffering an injury at work, I was bored one day and decided to start up a book blog and created The Book Review Cafe. I never really thought about where my blog would lead, and never in a million years did I think any one would end up reading it, let alone follow me! or that I would be in contact with some of my favourite authors

Tell us a little bit about your blog, what will blog readers find there?

I mostly review crime and psychological thrillers, I also run a regular feature called #TopFiveThursday where bloggers talk about their top five books, authors and blogs it’s a really popular post and I can’t believe how well it’s taken off. You will also find numerous question and answers with authors on my blog.

What’s your favourite part about book blogging?

Reading so many fantastic books prior to publication. I also love being part of the blogging community everyone’s so friendly and supportive.

What has been your highlight since you’ve started?

There are so many, interacting with some of my favourite authors, seeing my quotes for my reviews in books, being invited to publication events (sadly I have to turn most of these down due to work commitments and distance)

If you could carry on blogging but could stop doing one thing (that’s maybe a necessary part of the process now) what would it be?

Writing reviews! Sometimes my mind just goes blank and I can’t think what to write, I’m always worried my reviews will seem repetitive and boring, especially with all the awesome bloggers out there. I’m not sure a blog

without reviews would work though

What advice would you give to anyone who is considering starting a book blog?

Don’t feel you have to say “yes” to every book you are offered, Get involved in the blogging community, other bloggers are incredibly supportive and don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Only read what you want to read, life’s too short to be reading terrible books and be honest with your reviews it’s ok not to like a book as long as it’s a constructive review.

How much time does it take up?

Far too much at times, it’s the writing and formatting posts that take up so much of my time. It sometimes feels like a full time job in itself but I wouldn’t have it any other way

What are your reading habits like?

I mostly read 2-3 books a week depending on my work schedule (I work shifts), and I tried to read for at least an hour every day more if I’ve got a day off.

What state is your TBR (To Be Read) pile in?

Next question please! Only kidding my TBR pile is huge, I haven’t physically counted them but it’s a whole book shelf (six shelves!), plus at least 100 on my Kindle and I’ve just ordered another ten books off Amazon! And there’s ten on my NetGalley account. My plan is to cut back on blog tours, and accepting new books to review and concentrate on my TBR pile so watch this space!

What do you drink while reading?

Coffee and lots of it!

Where’s your favourite place to read?

Anywhere but bed, I can never get comfortable in bed to read. I mostly read in my favourite recliner chair in my lounge. I also love sitting out on the patio especially on a summers evening a glass of wine and a book perfect!

What book would you recommend, that gets little attention, that you haven’t really seen talked about? And why, what is it about this book that you love?

That’s a hard one there are so many fabulous books out there, especially by the self-published authors unfortunately because they haven’t got a huge budget like the big publishers they don’t get the recognition they so deserve. If it had to be one it would probably be Blanket Of Blood by Eileen Wharton it’s a dark and gritty debut crime novel, chilling in subject, well paced and darkly disturbing.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these. It’s been a pleasure having you.

Always so lovely to meet another blogger. I couldn’t agree more that bloggers do have to learn to say, ‘no.’ Otherwise, it all gets too much. And you’re right: the book blogging community is delightful, and very supportive.

Installing 64-bit Java is yet another method to boost
the performance of Minecraft. Minecraft is about
construction,that’s what yyou nesed to do throughout the sport.
Even though, minecraft might not exactly loolk extraordinary nevertheless it sure will provide you
with a journey like no other.